Lessons From the Super Bowl

16
After this weekend's Superbowl smackdown of the Denver Broncos, a lot of coaches, teams, team owners and team managers around the country are sitting around flabbergasted, with their thumbs up their backsides, and wondering how to replicate the success of the Seattle Seahawks--a team made up of free agents and "nobody wanted" draft picks. Heck, Coleman (the deaf player) wasn't even drafted. Seattle picked him up. Even the MVP of the entire game was a seventh round draft pick. Seventh round!

In short, Seattle flipped the script, capitalized on individual strengths, and created a literal game changer: a relatively "new" model in the NFL. Seattle's success was built on a few years of not seeking a couple of shining stars, nor asking players to be something they're not, but instead by putting players in place where they shine most, feel most at home, and have the most to offer to the team. Instead of penalizing them for their weaknesses, they looked at their strengths, and invested in those strengths. Fifty-some players, each with their own talents to bring to the whole.

Over twenty-some years in nursing, and it still seems nurses as they come out of school are woefully unprepared to "know themselves," and are instead groomed to tell prospective employers what they want to hear. I've long lamented the fact that nursing schools do not hone in on a person's strengths, but rather spit them out the other side--oftentimes meaning they end up as a square peg in a round hole.

Over the years I've seen incredibly talented people be chucked out the window like a banana peel. I really hope better for the younger generation. I would like to see nurses--from the prerequisite hopefuls, to the newly graduated, to the newly hired--be groomed to their strengths right out of the gate. And in turn, instead of constantly penalizing staff, focusing on shortcomings and creating a culture of fear (interspersed with rah-rah-sis-boom-bah-team-building exercises), I'd like to see hospitals invest in putting round pegs in round holes.

Perhaps I'm a dreamer, and perhaps a little unrealistic, but that's what they said about the Seahawks.

re-formatted I hope it's ok! Excellent post by the way! It is how I have always managed and I always had people waiting to join the staff. It's not that hard really but it does take time.

Thanks, Esme.

Yes, that was exactly how I was trying to format. Thank you! If AN has recently changed its posting format options, I can't seem to make it work. Could be my browser....

I'm glad to hear that's how you manage your unit.

I get so tired of the punitive atmosphere that seems to have been cultivated. Yes, I understand it is "just business" and even NFL teams have to cut people and make trades.

That said, there seems to be some sort of "This is a Good Nurse" template in schools and at the employer-levels, that do no one any good. The nurse flounders for years trying to figure out why they don't fit in, and subsequently become highly discouraged, and employers running through a bunch of employees that leave within months to a year or two of being hired.

Over the years I've seen incredibly talented people be chucked out the window like a banana peel. I really hope better for the younger generation. I would like to see nurses--from the prerequisite hopefuls, to the newly graduated, to the newly hired--be groomed to their strengths right out of the gate. And in turn, instead of constantly penalizing staff, focusing on shortcomings and creating a culture of fear (interspersed with rah-rah-sis-boom-bah-team-building exercises), I'd like to see hospitals invest in putting round pegs in round holes.

This! Admittedly you got me with Superbowl talk, but THIS! Innovative thinking and would help with nurse turnover and the costs associated with turnover. Where do I sign up??

I'm not a football fan at all- usually if there is a football/sports analogy at all I get totally lost (eg, the phrase "more skin in the game"?? what does that even mean?). But I loved this post. Yes, leaders should think like this and grow their staff's individual and team strengths!

The super bowl was horrible , I would rather see a close game , but I agree I've always helped the new nurses and really enjoy teaching them things, it would be good if schools let nurses develop strengths and work on weaknesses

But, neither do most neurosurgeons and physicists. That's not the point of this post, however.

Nurses need to be taught how to be self aware long before they are thrown to the wolves.

Sure, we all come out of nursing school with a vague idea of what we "like and don't like." But, it is a very rare person that comes out of any program of study having a fully focused grasp on who they are.

It takes a keen, objective, and learned eye to usher people into where they will be most happy, fulfilled, and effective within an organization. Unfortunately, what I see very often are players floundering around and miserable, and getting "stuck."

This goes far deeper than "I want to be in ER!" Or, "I want to work in OB!"

I don't know the solution, but looking at the Seahawk model, it is one that took a group of "OK athletes" that were cast-off's in the eyes of the many for varying reasons, and turned them into World Champions as a unit.